HR 3 WEEI Football Sunday - Can the Patriots win on defense alone?

We've covered a lot of different topics here, obviously.

We'll get back to the inactives and some of the injuries that are mostly affecting the defense, but I think all eyes are going to be on Drake May and the offense here on the road.

It's going to be like this all year, really, until he starts playing like we hope he can.

Until that happens, there's going to be a lot of expectations and potential disappointment if you don't see that.

I think that for a kid like May, and I still consider him a kid even though he's in his third year, he's still a very young player in the league and a very young quarterback in the league, but it's rare to have a one-year wonder.

who had the big year and then without a big injury like RG3 had or something, then just kind of falls back down.

Usually when I think of a wonder, I think of Derek Anderson or Steve Berline or one of these guys who was a backup and then had a big year as a starter and then went back to being a backup or something.

I don't think of someone like Drake Mayweather.

And had something where, or was in a Super Bowl because they had some incredibly elite offense or something, or sorry, defense on the other side.

I wrote about this for WEI.com this week about how many quarterbacks have lost their debut in the Super Bowl as starters over the last 10 years.

And Drake May becomes the eighth.

And what those quarterbacks look like when they play the season after, there's really only one guy who got noticeably better in the year after compared to the year where he brought his team to the Super Bowl and lost.

And that was Joe Burrow.

had more interceptions in the year that followed their Super Bowl campaign than the year before.

And the deep ball went away for most of those guys statistically.

So I think what we're seeing with Drake May is in line with what you can expect with a quarterback who's going through that, especially early in their career.

So maybe it's more a matter of us dropping our expectations, even though he got more pieces around him and he has the coordinator from last year for the first time back-to-back years.

Yeah, I agree with you.

And I think that there's a lot to look at and scrutinize, obviously, when it comes to that.

But I think in terms of the big picture here for this team and the season, you can win games this way.

They won three playoff games that way by the offense getting by and the defense smothering the other team.

They almost won that Seahawks game that exact same way.

They did beat the Steelers and Aaron Rodgers, who they lost to last year, that same way.

And you can win that way.

A lot of teams are kind of built like that right now.

We've covered a lot of different topics here, obviously.

We'll get back to the inactives and some of the injuries that are mostly affecting the defense, but I think all eyes are going to be on Drake May and the offense here on the road.

It's going to be like this all year, really, until he starts playing like we hope he can.

Until that happens, there's going to be a lot of expectations and potential disappointment if you don't see that.

I think that for a kid like May, and I still consider him a kid even though he's in his third year, he's still a very young player in the league and a very young quarterback in the league, but it's rare to have a one-year wonder.

who had the big year and then without a big injury like RG3 had or something, then just kind of falls back down.

Usually when I think of a wonder, I think of Derek Anderson or Steve Berline or one of these guys who was a backup and then had a big year as a starter and then went back to being a backup or something.

I don't think of someone like Drake Mayweather.

And had something where, or was in a Super Bowl because they had some incredibly elite offense or something, or sorry, defense on the other side.

I wrote about this for WEI.com this week about how many quarterbacks have lost their debut in the Super Bowl as starters over the last 10 years.

And Drake May becomes the eighth.

And what those quarterbacks look like when they play the season after, there's really only one guy who got noticeably better in the year after compared to the year where he brought his team to the Super Bowl and lost.

And that was Joe Burrow.

had more interceptions in the year that followed their Super Bowl campaign than the year before.

And the deep ball went away for most of those guys statistically.

So I think what we're seeing with Drake May is in line with what you can expect with a quarterback who's going through that, especially early in their career.

So maybe it's more a matter of us dropping our expectations, even though he got more pieces around him and he has the coordinator from last year for the first time back-to-back years.

Yeah, I agree with you.

And I think that there's a lot to look at and scrutinize, obviously, when it comes to that.

But I think in terms of the big picture here for this team and the season, you can win games this way.

They won three playoff games that way by the offense getting by and the defense smothering the other team.

They almost won that Seahawks game that exact same way.

They did beat the Steelers and Aaron Rodgers, who they lost to last year, that same way.

And you can win that way.

A lot of teams are kind of built like that right now.